Exa 1

[Rachel]

I seem to be having an Ihagee day so here is my Exa1 with Iscotar 2.8/50 lens. I bought it cheap on ebay for the lens as the body was described as non-working. True, not all the shutter speeds worked ..... well only the 1/60th worked. Exercising it seemed to work cos finally the other shutter speeds started to work, if intermittently, and last week I noticed that they seemed to have settled down and become more reliable.

Yesterday I picked it up and the shutter wouldn't fire. I fiddled with it but, NO, that shutter release wouldn't press in. I kept fiddling with it through the evening and this morning but it still wouldn't work so I put it down again on my computer table, where it's lived ever since I bought it, but this time with the back facing me and ....... it clicked (metaphorically). These things have a shutter lock on the back and it was in the Lock position So much relief now and I suppose I'd better try a film in it.

[PeterW]

Rachel,

Exaktas and Exas always had shutter locks. On the first Kine Exaktas and, I seem to remember, a few early Exas with a waist level viewfinder, though without digging and checking I'm not absolutely certain about the Exas, a shutter lock was brought in when the finder hood was closed.

The next safeguard against accidental firing was a small cup-shaped cover at the front which you swung down over the firing button.

This continued on the Varex Exaktas, but on the Exas it was replaced by a small locking lever on the back. A red dot was uncovered when the shutter was locked.

This was never a very positive lever and often a small bump would make it swing down from the firing to the locked position, or sometimes halfway, which made the shutter firing erratic, as you discovered. Exa users got used to feeling for the lock lever with a finger every time they took a shot, just to check.

Don't feel badly about not spotting the lock lever earlier. It wasn't labelled, and you're not the first to miss it, not by a long chalk. Even some sellers at camera fairs have offered pefectly good Exas for peanuts because they thought they were jammed. It sounds as if your ebay seller didn't know about it either. Cosmetically the camera looks in lovely condition.

The Iscotar wasn't, as far as I know, a lens offered as standard with Exas, they usually had a Meritar as the basic lens. I will be interested to see what results it gives.

PeterW

[Rachel]

Peter,

I knew that the shutter lock was there but I just forgot about it I suspect that quite a few new owners went back to the shop saying that the shutter had jammed.

The camera is in excellent condition but the shutter was quite erratic. Sometimes it let no light through at all and at other times it didn't quite shut properly leaving an open slit at the top. I tried several Exas from my local dealer and all had this problem with the shutters.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that it is working OK.

[mickeyobe]

Thank you Rachel. Thank you. Thank you.
My non operative Exa Ia now works.
How could I have been so blind?

Mickey

[Rachel]

mickeyobe said:

Thank you Rachel. Thank you. Thank you.
My non operative Exa Ia now works.
How could I have been so blind?
Mickey

That's super Mickey ...... giggle